Characters

Introduction of characters:

•Bill & Eve are the parents of the Casson family. Both artists, they're quite different. Bill is a fashionable and somewhat snobbish artist who, from since Rose was born, has effectively lived apart from his family in a London flat, lately with a girlfriend.

Eve, who describes herself as a "tatty hippy", is scatterbrained but warm-hearted. She earns money by selling flattering portraits of pets and family members and by socially-oriented work such as teaching Young Offenders or decorating the hospital.

•Cadmium is the oldest Casson, a girl named after a colour like all of Bill & Eve's children. A sixth-former in the earlier stories, a university student later, she is pretty and intelligent but is unable to commit to marrying one of the several boyfriends she brings home to try out on her family. (Although she comes close).

•Saffron was adopted by the Cassons when her mother, Eve's twin sister Linda, died when Saffy was four.She's good-looking and very intelligent. She's between 14 and 16-years old.
Indigo, two years younger than Saffy, is the only boy among the four Casson siblings. He's smart but introspective at school, which leads to his being bullied.

Rose is the youngest Casson, four years younger than Indigo. Naturally artistic, but not inclined to reading, she's a normal, if gifted, 8-year-old girl, and resents not being allowed to do everything her older brother and sisters can do.

Sarah is Saffy's special friend. Largely wheelchair-bound after a childhood illness, she is bright and determined to let nothing get in her way. Her family is well-to-do, and her mother is the headmistress of the private school she attends.

Michael is Caddy's on-off boyfriend whom she can't quite marry, but neither can she quite let go of him. He's friendly and kind to all the Cassons and keeps up his hope of Caddy one day coming back to him.

Bill married Eve some 20 years before but some time after Rose's birth took himself off to London to his fashionable studio and has effectively remained there ever since, coming “home” for increasingly irregular weekend stays.

It takes the family a while to accept that this is what has happened, and it's true to say that Bill still loves his children and his wife. But definitely at a distance.

There's a nice scene in SA where Bill visualises his family with a rosy glow, picturing Indigo as a keen footballer and Saffy with a smile and without a nose stud. He even goes so far as to bring a football and a doll as presents for Indigo and Rose respectively, only to face the reality of his family's messy lives from which he escapes as soon as he can.

He has the charisma of a filmstar, and the taxi driver who takes him to the station thinks he's a great family man, but Bill heaves a sigh of relief once he's back on the train to London.

Eve, on the other hand, while she also hides from her family in the garden shed where she does most of her painting, is most definitely at home with the children. She is the kind of artist whom Bill patronises: she has displays of her work in the window of the local Building Society (and they sell out) and teaches Young Offenders to print T-Shirts.

Scatty and increasingly reliant on her children's ability to make up for her inadequacies, she's a lovable figure who never lets money matters worry her; she simply dives back into the shed and produces a glowing portrait of a family pet to make ends meet.

The friendships between Saffy & Sarah are beneficial in both directions.

The girls happily ignore each other's disadvantages (Saffy's poverty and Sarah's immobility) Sarah is the only child of a well-to-do couple and could easily have been spoilt.

Saffy suffers initially from a feeling of exclusion as she was adopted and her name doesn't appear on the family colour chart.